Leaderboard

Well the MU-2 detour work didn't help.....but beyond that, in the world of custom engineering / design work, there are unknowns in the process. Perhaps the results we are able to get out of x-plane might not be what we want and we have to backtrack and try different techniques, or we make conscious choices to implement things we didn't plan on implementing initially. May be the software we use is giving us fits (*cough Substance Painter). In estimating efforts for stuff like this, I like to call such targets, "personal carrots" we dangle in front of our own faces to keep us moving and motivated. I can reel off a large list of custom efforts that went well beyond time and cost estimates ....by Boeing, NASA, Icon aircraft, Cirrus, Space-X ...really smart folks with billions of bucks to work with etc...so it just comes with the territory. We're happy when we get it right...and just keep our heads down when we don't. One example though....we have working cabin doors. You can open these doors via the GUI by clicking a checkbox to have the doors open/close. BUT....I guarantee some folks will want to open these doors more like the real thing, by grabbing the handles and rotating them. So....I put that feature in, and it was a bit more work than clicking my heels together 3 times....and when I did that, now the checkboxes via the GUI need to reflect the door state if opened by mouse first. If you open the door halfway with the mouse and then open the GUI dialog....what do you see then, what should the checkboxes show? What feels natural and logical? This disconnect between possible actuation methods caused animating 'jumps' and I had to run a bunch of tests to see what worked and felt logical and natural, and add custom code to handle all that and it just added some extra time, etc. But in the end, I know that the customers that like to move stuff with the mouse will be happy and those that don't care can still use the checkboxes. But until I tried it, I wasn't exactly sure what worked best. I have to view the interactivity in this example from the perspective of a LOT of customers with different preferences and expectations. In the end, its a win-win for all customers, at the expense of my time estimate being delayed because I decided to add in a feature I didn't before, etc. There's been a few other areas regarding lighting that didn't quite work out like I hoped, eating up too many FPS and I had to backtrack and make some changes there also. Until I tried it though, I wasn't sure what the performance cost would be..and the alternative method turned out to be quite a bit of work. So...its stuff like this that stretches the time estimates. Your comment though, that you love the product gives me confidence that my choices when doing the work are mostly the right ones, and taking the time to do it right, even if it goes past my estimates, are usually worth it. -tkyler

Yes they will. -tk

Is it your first day in the flight simulation space? Nobody hits their goals/estimate. ini keep their mouth shut until the product is 99.9% complete, then announce a release date - that's completely different to what's going on here, where we've been kept up to date with the development along the way. It'll be ready when it's ready, and, as a long time user of the product, I'm grateful for that.

I really dont think people have any idea of how much work goes into an airline, especially trying to replicate an FMS and flight system and all the idiosyncrasies that each have. Not like they are all the same. appreciate the work still my fav.

You must be new!

This is the exact reason why most developers don't give estimates! On another note, I'm looking forward to the XP12 version of the 733 as it was one of my favorite XP11 addons, but I was always a little disappointed the cabin was not done properly or the doors didn't open! One quick question, do the seat belt/no smoking signs light up in the cabin when you flick the appropriate switch in the cockpit?

OH MY!!! He died doing what he loved to do. Ariel was quoted as saying. A legend in Alaskan aviation. Very sad. Fly Wild Alaska has been my favorite series to watch for many years and I still watch it today.

Unfortunately none of these is currently available in the DA40

Indeed. This has been a very big process, guys. The entire website has been getting a makeover in the process to ensure information is clear to our customers, including OS architecture support and X-Plane type. This is a site wide product page format upgrade, and it is brand new from the ground up. Please bear with us as we bring things online in segments. We have all been working overtime on this from Tom with the MU-2, to Ben with fixing bugs or improving the plug-in, and over to myself with web architecture. It's been non-stop go go go.

Curious Why is this taking so long long. You have missed every single estimate you put out. Even ini builds releases before this. Love ur plane but I’m suprised honestly